Miscellaneous Baking

Like the crunch of biscotti but want a savory (salty) munch instead? These are sort of like wine-and-cheese sticks, vino et fromaggio: tender/crisp bites that are nicely eaten, out of hand, with a glass of wine or punch, while you are waiting for dinner to be ready or want a bite with a friend and not a muffin or cookie for a change. If you use supermarket, pre-grated parmesan cheese (which I cannot recommend but do as you will)  it will likely be too salty so either spring for important parmesan and grate it yourself or the be sure to reduce the salt in this recipe ½-1/4 teaspoon. You might want to add bits of black olives to these so that people realize they are savory, not sweet, biscotti. This is a good gift (with a bottle of Chianti, special olive oil and a hunk of imported Parmesan) or a great cocktail hour nibble. If you roll these like dog bones, you get an entirely different presentation. These are humble looking but tasty enough for some gourmet food company to come calling for the recipe.

Paneforte or ‘strong bread’ is a delicious, candied confection, more than a cake. It dates back to the Crusades and is a predecessor of modern day fruitcake.It is often available in Italian food stores at Christmas but you can make one anytime. This version has a lovely hint of chocolate and a bite of extra spice – it is dense and chewy, and nicely studded with chunky whole almonds in each bite.

Chocolate cinnamon ‘schmear’, chocolate chips in the filling, and slicked up with a chocolate fondant glaze. Yum. Maple your preference? See the variation.

This is superb for a party or brunch. It is different and satisfying – not quite chocolate soufflé cake and not a cheesecake but somewhere in-between. It is as good served chilled in wedges with warm white chocolate sauce as it is slightly warm out of the oven, with caramel sauce or whipped cream or even a scoop of softened vanilla ice-cream. Use leftover chocolate cake such as Classic Dark Chocolate Layer Cake and leftover Notting Hill Brownies (without any nuts in it) or your own. If you are really time-pressed, use leftover store-bought or a mix. I give you permission for the final results of this cake are more than the sum of the parts (although homemade everything makes it cake Utopia). And if you don’t have enough cake  - use more brownies; or vice versa or make up the difference with the bread chunks. It is a flexible recipe. Chocolate extract is optional but a nice touch. Nielsen Massey makes it and can advise you where to find it online or in stores.

 

Chocolate hamantaschen make for a nice change and they're perfect for kids
who may not care for some of the more tart fruit fillings. You will find
chocolate hazelnut paste in the peanut butter and jam section of most
supermarkets. Or use this in the Chocolate Peanut Butter Hamantashen recipe in my Complete Recipe Archives.

You cannot believe how good a strong black tea is when coupled with chocolate notes and a sweep of orange! This is dessert in a cup. An extravagant, outrageously, decadent cuppa tea. You could vary this by using white chocolate instead of the milk chocolate. This is a great tea to bring in a cannister or pretty cello bag and a colored tie as a gift or for serving to guests with spice cake, butter cookies, or a delicate pastry.

If you saw The Birdcage, you will remember, Nathan Lane goes wild for the cinnamon schnecken at a local pastry shop. Rent the movie, make the recipe.  These are cinnamon laced, buttery, morsels of joy. You can also freeze them unbaked and bake as needed – no rise required.

This brown sugar and coconut wonder is a throwback to the days when Impossible pies heralded the arrival of Bisquick © which is a flour, baking powder, salt and shortening mix that made for quick biscuits, cakes and pancakes. Some of the most famous of this genre of pies were Impossible Coconut Pie and Impossible Bacon Pie which was the quickest quiche imaginable – the eggs and  bacon filling, mysteriously separating as the pie baked into a brunch cassrole/quiche that deserves its fame. Impossible referred to the quick and easy method (usually all ingredients were dumped in a blender and whizzed up in seconds), as well as the novelty of pies that went into a pan as a batter and bake into a pie filling/pie sort of dessert. This recipe is also good if you pour the Impossible filling into a pre-baked pie shell. Serve with crème anglaise, fresh churned vanilla ice-cream or a dab of whipped cream and some fresh summer berries. Vintage pie with contemporary great taste. It is not quite pie, not quite a chewy square but sort of a tender, buttery little cake that defies description. I guess it deserves to be called....Impossible.